John Wrisley

“In 1946, I had the good fortune to get a taste of Radio’s Golden Era,” said veteran broadcaster and Columbia native John Wrisley. “Now I have the good fortune to still remember it.”

Before the day of cable and the internet, before the day of MTV and the instant message, before the day of to each his own, families engaged in the strange habit of sharing the evening meal, all together, at the same time, and at the same table.

And when the evening meal was done, the table cleared, the dishes washed, dried and put away, families engaged in the strangest habit yet. “That’s when families sat together in the parlor,” Wrisley said, “watching radio.”

On Saturday, March 19, John Wrisley will be in neighboring Winnsboro “Turning Back the Clock.” From 4 to 5:30 pm, in The Pine Tree Playhouse, Wrisley will join Pehlham Lyles, Fairfield County Museum director, to create live reenactments from The Golden Era.

“We’ll hear Rudy Vallee give Bergen and McCarthy their first radio job,” Wrisley said. “Fred Allen will knock on a door or two in Allen’s Alley. Baby Snooks and Talullah Bankhead will share a memorable exchange, and Raymond’s door will squeak open to The Inner Sanctum where Boris Karloff awaits in shadow.”

Wrisley will also treat his audience to a demonstration of Golden Era sound effects, all magic of the listeners’ and creators’ imaginations before the soundboard of digital technology. An example is the awesome crash you heard when Fibber McGee’s closet was accidentally opened by that hapless piano tuner?

And oh, those Battling Bickersons! Pelham Lyles will join Wrisley in a re–enactment of one of those petty, irritating, domestic showdowns we all love because they always give us license and cause to laugh at ourselves.

John Wrisley, along with Betsy Weinberg, a radio veteran and renowned Columbia vocalist, produce a widely visited old time radio web page at Wrisley.com. The page, created in 1996, has attracted broadcast buffs and veterans throughout the US and Canada. Among them are early TV quiz show host, Jack Narz, and radio luminary, Norman Corwin.